3dsmax 2018, garbage!

[cheerioboy]

So my office is yet again trying to pry 3dsmax 2012 away from me. I've tried 2015 and now 2018, in hopes that I'll use the same version software as the rest of the office. And with Vray discontinuing 2012 support there's even more pressure. At least Vray has more enticing features like the cryptomatte support.

But why is it that any current project I open in these new versions runs like total crap in the viewport? I keep hearing about viewport performance but I don't see it at all! A 5mil poly interior archviz scene which I separate rooms into layers to help with viewport performance, toggling on/off as needed. But somehow 2012 still runs these scenes better than any of the newer packages. Is it that I need to work on a project from scratch within 2018 to see the improvement?

It's sad that Autodesk has never given me a good reason to upgrade... in 5+ years.

brb, rebooting.

[Alex_M]

Are you having problems with viewport performance only? What graphics card do you use? Newer versions of Max take advantage of the newer GPU architectures so older GPUs may not run that smooth on the new viewport which is optimized for newer card models. What about your video drivers? You might also want to check if they are up to date too.

Anyways, I can recommend Max 2016 as a middle ground. It's been very stable for me so far.

[cheerioboy]

GPU is a GeForce GTX 660 - seems that's the best that'll fix in this Dell machine given the interior space constraints and power supply or lack of power supply connectors.
Video drivers I usually have the latest via GeForce Experience, currently on Version: 382.05. Looks like there's a newer version but they always seem like small updates that pertain to video games.

It doesn't make sense to have to invest more in hardware to get the same experience, if that's really the problem here.

Sorry I had to rant, rough morning dealing with this new software.

[oglu]

are you opening old max files..? that could cause a lot of troubles...

[cheerioboy]

are you opening old max files..? that could cause a lot of troubles...

So older files will have performance issues? I opened a recent project originally built with 2012, opened in 2018, saved, and tried to reopen - program hangs.

[oglu]

yes thats not the way how it works... old files does store a lot of fallback stuff... max will start to emulate the old max...
create everthing from scratch...

[cheerioboy]

Seems I've isolated the issue to 6 dining room chairs. 20k poly each, with instanced geosphere studs. 823 objects within each group. Ungrouping all of them seems to help - deleted all but one. Attached all the studs as a single object. Re-grouped and re-arrayed around table. Now the file seems fine. Is this something the newer versions of 3dsmax aren't able to handle?

Also attached, is this how the vray sun rollout looks? With the grey and grayer boxes around them? Appears to only be happening with Vray specific controls. I'm going to try to use ame-light.ui - I'm guessing it's not worth fighting the icons and trying to get them to look like previous versions. Need to accept the change.

[Deflaminis]

There is a thread where you can get the 2016 icons back in a package toward the end of the thread. This link goes right to the zip file for the light interface. https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-m...033764#M136239

[cheerioboy]

There is a thread where you can get the 2016 icons back in a package toward the end of the thread. This link goes right to the zip file for the light interface. https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-m...033764#M136239

Thanks for this - will be following that thread and seeing if I can help in making a complete set of 2014 icons for 2018.